The UK is working with EU allies “on what a Sky Shield may look like”, the Defence Secretary said. He also signaled a ship-building boom to boost the size of the Royal Navy.
Britain Eyes ‘Sky Shield’ to Counter Putin’s Threat
The UK is working with EU allies “on what a Sky Shield may look like”, the Defence Secretary said. He also signaled a ship-building boom to boost the size of the Royal Navy. The Sky Shield plan could see missiles such as US Patriots, Israeli Arrow-3s and German IRIS-Ts deployed to UK soil to protect against hostile projectiles, including drones.
Mr Shapps dismissed calls from MPs, including Penny Mordaunt, to buy Israel’s Iron Dome defence technology and said the Europe Sky Shield talks were “in early stages”. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz proposed the initiative to boost European air defence after Vladimir Putin launched missiles on Ukrainian infrastructure in 2022.
The Sky Shield plan aims to cut costs for countries by coordinating their access to air and defence systems such as the US-made Patriot missile system. Asked how he planned to spend the extra £75billion pledged for the defence budget between now and 2030, Mr Shapps said: “I’ll shortly be saying more as a shipbuilding czar.” Last week, PM Rishi Sunak unveiled his plan to hike up defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2030. Sunak hailed it as the “biggest strengthening of national defence in a generation” to combat a growing axis of evil between Russia, Iran, China and North Korea.
Talks of a “Sky Shield” over Europe came after French President Emmanuel Macron suggested forging a bubble of nuclear protection from Russia. Macron said 300 submarine-launched ballistic missiles should be placed across the continent to shore up collective defence.
